Good evening and thank you for joining me for another boring books for bedtime.

I hope tonight's selection provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you

get some sleep. Before we begin I'd like to give a few shout-outs to brand new members of our Patreon, Megan, Johnny, Carrie, Bibbinella, and Beth.

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Now, let's get ready to relax.

Find a comfortable spot.

Adjust your volume.

Take a nice deep breath in.

Let it out slowly and off we go.

Tonight we're reading a selection from excursions, a collection of essays published by Henry David Thoreau in 1863.

In this selection, however, we're hearing about Henry David Thoreau in a biographical

sketch penned by equally famous author Ralph Waldo Emerson. Let's begin.

Henry David Thoreau was the last male descendant of a French ancestor who came to this country from the Isle of Guernsey.

His character exhibited occasional traits drawn from this blood in singular combination with a very strong Saxon genius.

He was born in Concord, Massachusetts on the 12th of July, 1817. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1837, but without any literary distinction.

An iconoclast in literature, he seldom thanked colleges for their service to him, holding them in small esteem

whilst yet his debt to them was important.

...